The project management term monitor shares a very different and completely unique definition as the one that is used to represent the electronic viewing component that is attached to your personal computer. Rather, when it comes to the sphere of project management, the term monitor refers specifically to a verb that can be defined as the activity of the project management team leader or project management team in which he/she or they gather and thoroughly collect the entirety of project performance data with respect for a specific and pre-defined plan. The term monitor also refers to the supplemental activities of producing and completing all of the pre-defined performance measures in regards to the project or the particular phase of the project. Lastly, the act of monitoring the project refers to the follow-up activity or reporting and disseminating all the results that have been gathered via the el3ements of the monitor activity that have been mentioned in the preceding sentences.
This term is defined in the 3rd and the 4th edition of the PMBOK.